Anybody know who is running for Michael Bryant's old seat in Toronto? This will be the first test of the Hudak brand.

i tried to find out as well and did some google searching but nothing came up and there might of allready been a nomination meeting there earlier this week if a page from the ontario pc party was accurate .

and also found a local st pauls riding association site but nothing was there either

TORONTO — Ontario Liberals will be gathering to choose their candidate in the race to fill the Toronto seat vacated by Michael Bryant, the former economic development minister who stepped down in May.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has yet to call a byelection for the riding, but party members will get the process rolling with a nomination meeting Wednesday.

They will pick one of three candidates: Eric Hoskins, a family doctor and the founder of War Child Canada, lawyer Charles Finlay and Judith Moses, a former senior assistant deputy minister of agriculture who has also served in several other ministries.

The New Democrats will nominate their own candidate Sept. 9, and two contenders have already presented themselves.

They are Julian Heller, a trial lawyer who ran as the NDP candidate in St. Paul's in both the 2003 and 2007 provincial elections, as well as the former leader of B.C.'s Green party, Stuart Parker.

No candidates have yet been named for the Progressive Conservatives.

The Green party is putting forth three contenders -- realtor Chris Chopik, businessman Trifon Haitas and Raj Rama, a social and business entrepreneur -- and will also be choosing their candidate Wednesday.

Bryant, a colourful and outspoken minister, stepped down in the spring to take on a role as head of Invest Toronto, a new corporation to attract investment to the city.

He had been McGuinty's point man on talks to save Ontario's ailing auto industry, but left politics as General Motors headed into a crucial deal to qualify for billions of dollars in government loans, which were eventually granted.

Before leaving, Bryant raised eyebrows with an enthusiastic speech about the need for a stronger government role in business, a so-called "reverse Reaganism" plan that would have Ontario picking "winners and losers" on a case-by-case basis.

( just saw this article and it loks like there might be a possible star ontario pc candidate in st pauls )

Tories see columnist as 'dream candidate'

PCs woos journalist in St. Paul's as Liberals pick candidate tonight

Aug 12, 2009 04:30 AM
Robert Benzie
Rob Ferguson
Queen's Park Bureau
As the Liberals select a by-election candidate tonight for the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, the Progressive Conservatives hope to scoop them by fielding a prominent newspaper columnist.

Sources told the Star the Tories are actively wooing veteran Toronto Sun city hall columnist Sue-Ann Levy to carry the blue banner in the high-profile riding.

The Tories see Levy, a staunch fiscal conservative and fierce critic of Mayor David Miller's stewardship, as "a dream candidate."

Jewish and gay – she came out on the Sun's front page to mark Pride Week in 2007 – Levy lives in the riding, which boasts a thriving Jewish community, with her new wife, Denise Alexander. She has an MBA from the University of Toronto.

"We're really excited about Sue-Ann," said one senior Tory, who hoped the news would be made official today and "bigfoot" tonight's Liberal nomination meeting.

The Liberals are selecting a candidate to succeed former MPP Michael Bryant, who held the riding from 1999 until May, when he left to become head of Invest Toronto.

Liberal insiders note it is the "first truly wide-open" nomination for a by-election candidate since Premier Dalton McGuinty took power in 2003. Veteran senior provincial and federal bureaucrat Judith Moses, 59, would make history if she wins the nomination and the subsequent by-election.

"I would be the first aboriginal woman MPP," Moses said.

A federal Liberal candidate last year in York-Simcoe, she was born at the Six Nations reserve and has spent three decades advising four PMs and serving in a dozen federal and provincial departments.

"It's been a very competitive, well-fought race," Moses said of the nomination to be decided tonight at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church on St. Clair Ave. W.

The other two candidates also have political experience, with trial lawyer Charles Finlay, 33, serving as treasurer of the St. Paul's Liberal riding association and Eric Hoskins, 48, a physician and founder of War Child Canada, having run federally last October in Haldimand-Norfolk and served as an adviser to a former federal cabinet minister.

Finlay, who has worked on mental-health issues and tutored prison inmates, said he looks forward to touting the government's record in a "hard-fought" by-election.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou cannot download files in this forum